Gabbie S

Even though money is tight, I'm so fortunate to have internet access & be computer literate so that I'm able to shop around. Take pet insurance for example. My current provider quoted me £90 per month to renew insurance for my elderly dog & 2 of my cats. £90! That is an obscene amount of money! So I used a comparison website to check for better deals & have renewed my pet insurance for my dog & all 4 cats that now live with me for £45 per month - a saving of 50%. And the policies were all interest free for paying monthly, which is a welcome change. There are folk out there that do say those on low incomes shouldn't have pets (or children) if they can't afford them. But given that I don't smoke, drink much,go out or go on holidays, pets make my life meaningful & bring me comfort in difficult times. I can't imagine a life without pets - I've grown up with pets, always had them even before I ended up in dire straits. I've paid nothing for them - they were all unwanted or abandoned rescues. I tend to get on with them better than people lol. Yes, I'd have more money if they weren't eating me out of house & home but I would be even lonelier than I already feel. The fact that I've unintentionally ended up with so many pets is fuelled by guilt in part because when I fled the family home with my children - I had to leave my dog & cats behind - I couldn't get help to rehome them because no-one, meaning animal rescue professionals, would intervene on my behalf. I don't know what happened to them & will never know - and that kills me & still fills me with guilt to this very day. I could put the money I pay on insurance into a bank account & save it up. But the fact that I seem to lurch from crisis to crisis would mean that any savings would be eaten up through emergency expenses, which when you live life on a low income seems to crop up at the most inconvenient of times. I prefer to have the security of knowing there are funds available should I need them. For example, last year along I had to pay nearly £2000 in vet fees because my dog needed an operation & one of my rabbits needed repeated dental treatment. I had to pay it up front, so even with an insurance policy, I was still left short. Obviously I resorted to using a credit card, which is why I'm currently maxed out. I'm so tired of living life on a knife edge, financially speaking. But one thing it demonstrates is those who have the least do shop around & cut their cloth according to their means, given their circumstances. It's just that sometimes there is no more cloth to cut.